The female candidates on this year’s series of The Apprentice have assured their place in series history with their latest innovation – despite losing their third consecutive task.

Wednesday night’s instalment saw the teams given the job of inventing a piece of flat-pack furniture and pitching it to a range of potential stockists including Argos and John Lewis.

And while the boys’ team came up trumps with ‘Foldo’ – the chair which turns into a table in seconds – it was the girls’ ‘Tidy Sidey’ which raised the most eyebrows.

The item – a cube which doubled as a storage unit, table and chair, proved so singularly unimpressive that the team managed to shift just 174 of them to potential buyers.

Twitter users were also quick to make their feelings known about the product, later described by Lord Sugar as ‘wishy washy’ and ‘poxy boxy’, as well as ‘like something you’d expect to see in 1970s East Germany’.

The 22-year-old was caughjt in the middle of a fierce boardroom spat between fellow candidates Natalie and Uzma (Picture: BBC)

‘If I was on that team, the ‘Tidy Sidey’ would have been marketed as Bonfire Fuel,’ tweeted one, while another added: ‘That tidysidey actually made me laugh at my tele! What a piece of crap!’

Another said: ‘That really WAS the worst design ever!’ while a fellow Tweeter commented: ‘How are they keeping a straight face when they say it? Completely useless.’

The girls’ disastrous efforts led to this year’s youngest candidate, Sophie Lau, being shown the door by Lord Sugar.

The 22-year-old was sent packing after an explosive boardroom showdown between fellow candidates Natalie Panayi – who led the task – and feisty Uzma Yakoob

Lord Sugar also hit out at their failings, saying: ‘It doesn’t matter how good you pitch, your product sucks.’